American literature writers list

The twentieth century saw an unmatched period of artistic accomplishment in Latin America. Though it is nearly impossible to choose only a few writers to highlight, the following Latin American authors must be noted for their contributions to the richness of modern literature and poetry.

In the early portion of the 1900s, poets like Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and César Vallejo, as well as Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, and Argentine prose writer Jorge Luis Borges laid the foundation for the Latin American Boom. The Latin American Boom was a period of literary flourishing in the 1960s and 70s that brought much of the area’s literature to an international audience. Famous Boom authors include Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez.

To get a sense of the puissance of 20th century Latin American writers, it should be mentioned that of the ten figures mentioned above, half (García Márquez, Mistral, Vargas Llosa, Paz, and Neruda) have won the Nobel Prize. They are among the fortunate international authors who no doubt signify legions of worthy Latin Americans waiting for an audience.

Here we explore a selection of authors whose works contribute to the robust Latin American canon.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Borges was a precocious writer. He published his first work, a translation of Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince, " at age 7. However, Jorge Luis Borges, the classic writer, did not surface until his late thirties. Always afflicted with poor eyesight, Borges fell down a staircase and sustained a severe head injury. It was during his recovery that he turned his attention to his writing abilities, and in an attempt to prove he could still, or at all, write, he began a story which was to become "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius."

Borges was a learned reader, sometimes startlingly so. He first read Don Quixote in an English translation; he admired Walt Whitman; and he was drawn to the many classical writers of England, North America, and Europe. He had a taste for Poe, and especially Kafka, whom he deliberately emulated. His short stories frequently present his reader with a dizzying array of libraries, labyrinths, and mirrors. Ana Maria Barrenchea, in an expertly brief description of Borges, said that he "is an admirable writer pledged to destroy reality and convert man into a shadow.”

Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980)

Alejo Carpentier’s great stylistic contribution to Latin American literature was his magical realism, called lo real maravilloso, which reflects the fantastic, and often otherworldly, properties of Latin American life. As the likes of García Márquez and Neruda have expressed (see below), their real-life world of revolution and upheaval has created an audience that embraces the extreme as never too far from the truth. Carpentier was musically inclined and was drawn to Afro-Cuban culture. His novel The Kingdom of this World depicts the Haitian uprising in which African slaves rebel against their French colonial rulers. Carpentier’s work not only provided the Boom authors with stylistic inspiration, but his life of exile and arrests offered a model for the Latin American artist’s dedicated political activism.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Few Latin American authors have had the luxury to ignore politics. Neruda was an outspoken voice in Latin American world politics, a move which allowed him, in some ways, to alienate everyone. He controversially favored Joseph Stalin and had his library ransacked and desecrated by the ruling Chilean regime. He depended on the kindness of supporters across Latin America to escape. Talk to any of his devoted readers, and you’re sure to find something about his politics that they both admire and condemn.